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Attorney General's Team Takes Over Bonx Case

A team of prosecutors from Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco's office took control today of the grand jury investigation into the killing of a police officer in the Bronx, even as civil rights groups prepared to fight Gov. George E. Pataki's decision to remove District Attorney Robert T. Johnson from the case.

The relatively smooth transfer of authority from the district attorney's office to Mr. Vacco belied the heated oratory that continued to swirl around Mr. Pataki's extraordinary move on Thursday to replace Mr. Johnson. The Governor said he pushed Mr. Johnson aside because he believed the prosecutor would not seek the death penalty against the ex-convict, Angel Diaz, 28, accused of killing Police Officer Kevin Gillespie, 33.

For his part, Mr. Johnson expressed confidence that he would yet prevail against Mr. Pataki. "I really feel positive and upbeat," he said following extended applause after he was introduced tonight at the Macon B. Allen Black Bar Association dinner-dance in Queens. "I feel no pressure. You don't feel pressure when you do what you know is right."

A coalition representing Democratic City Council members and state legislators, religious organizations and civil rights groups announced today that it would hold a demonstration on the steps of the Bronx County Court House on Monday to protest Mr. Pataki's action. Former Mayor David N. Dinkins said he would participate.

Dennis Walcott, president of the New York Urban League and an organizer of the protest, charged that Mr. Pataki had effectively disenfranchised Bronx voters by removing Mr. Johnson from the case. He said he believed that the Governor had created a racial dispute by focusing his attacks on the state's only black district attorney.

"Whether the Governor intentionally wanted to make it a racial thing or not," Mr. Walcott said today, "race has been injected into it. Among the people I've spoken to in the black community, it seems the Governor has made a concerted focus on the Bronx D.A."

Mr. Pataki has said he replaced Mr. Johnson solely because the prosecutor has made it clear he opposes capital punishment. Mr. Pataki called Mr. Walcott's charges today "nonsense."

Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said his group plans to file suit challenging Mr. Pataki's removal of the District Attorney. Mr. Johnson has also vowed to contest the move in court, though his aides said he would not bring legal action until after an indictment is returned in the murder case.

Mr. Siegel said he was exploring the possibility of filing suit on behalf of Bronx voters on the grounds that Mr. Pataki had disenfranchised them by replacing Mr. Johnson, an elected official. He also said he might use the suit to challenge the constitutionality of the death penalty itself.

Mr. Vacco's team of prosecutors will be led by George B. Quinlan, an assistant attorney general and head of a unit created last year to assist local prosecutors in death penalty cases. Three other state lawyers and an investigator have also been assigned to help in the prosecution. Three of Mr. Johnson's assistants are expected to help too, at least until an indictment is handed up.

While Mr. Quinlan began work today on the grand jury investigation, state Senator Guy J. Velella, a Bronx Republican, called on Mr. Vacco to move the case to another county because of the enormous media attention around it. A spokesman for Mr. Vacco said the Attorney General had rejected the request.

Some prosecutors contend that Bronx juries are unpredictable and even pro-defendant. Asked if he was concerned that Mr. Vacco might lose the case, Mr. Pataki said no. But he acknowledged that he was concerned that a Bronx jury might be unwilling to impose the death penalty in this or any murder case.